Chelsea new boy pips Man City star in ranking of all 20 Premier League No. 2 goalkeepers | OneFootball

Premier League back-up goalkeepers Matt Turner, Jason Steele and Fraser Forster.

Some clubs put a lot of work into finding a back-up goalkeeper, while others do a half-arsed job or just decide a player from the youth academy will do.

Surprisingly, the Premier League elite are spread out quite nicely in our ranking of all 20 second-choice goalkeepers in the English top flight.

20) James Shea (Luton Town) 20th. Luton. That has a nice ring to it.

Luton’s first-choice goalkeeper in their promotion-winning campaign was Ethan Horvath, who returned to Nottingham Forest earlier this summer after spending 12 months on loan at Kenilworth Road.

The £2.5m arrival of Thomas Kaminski from Blackburn Rovers means last season’s second-choice, James Shea, will still probably be the Hatters’ No. 2, with ex-Hibernian and Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Macey in the stands.

19) George Shelvey (Nottingham Forest) “I think a loan is the best option this year to get the amount of minutes I need. I’m here to play football. I’m not here to be a training keeper.” 22-year-old shot-stopper Shelvey clearly knows what is best for his career and will probably go out on loan if/when Forest eventually sign a new goalkeeper – likely to be Manchester United’s Dean Henderson or Arsenal’s Matt Turner.

18) Adam Davies (Sheffield United) It is time for some cutting-edge analysis that will blow your socks off.

Davies is simply an average Championship goalkeeper. Displacing Wes Foderingham is not the most difficult task in the world, but it won’t be happening at Bramall Lane this season.

17) Robin Olsen (Aston Villa) There is probably no bigger gap between current first and second-choice goalkeepers in the Premier League.

16) Fraser Forster (Tottenham) To say Forster is past his best would be the understatement of the century. The ex-Celtic goalkeeper was very good in his pomp but was always very suspect with the ball at his feet at the best of times.

Hugo Lloris is still at the club; however, he is expected to leave rather than playing back-up to summer signing Guglielmo Vicario.

15) Joao Virginia (Everton) 23-year-old Joao Virginia has spent time on loan at Reading, Sporting and SC Cambuur since joining Everton from Arsenal in 2018, making three competitive appearances for the Toffees in that time.

There is a very strong chance the Portuguese goalkeeper stays at Goodison Park this season, to play second fiddle to England No. 1 Jordan Pickford. Virginia is a capable enough back-up, even if he was dropped by Dutch side Cambuur halfway through last season. Eek.

14) Tom Heaton (Manchester United) Dean Henderson is all but guaranteed to leave United before the end of the transfer window. That is unless Nottingham Forest decide to sign Arsenal shot-stopper Turner instead. If they do, you can bet your bottom dollar the Red Devils will shoot up a load of places here.

Heaton is a top professional and was recently denied a move to Luton Town where he would be a No. 1 again. If Erik ten Hag signs another goalkeeper – it would only be Japanese youngster Zion Suzuki – we might see a goalkeeper domino effect that results in Heaton moving to Kenilworth Road.

Manchester United goalkeeper Tom Heaton

13) Martin Dubravka (Newcastle United) Dubravka is quite similar to Forster in that he is past his best and not very good on the ball, but he is still a fairly decent option for a Premier League club; he would definitely start for Luton and be a less painful deputy to Emiliano Martinez at Villa Park.

12) Ionut Radu (Bournemouth) Comments from Italians under Twitter posts about Radu’s move reading ‘Milan legend!’ is a pretty bad first impression considering he joined Bournemouth from Inter. Fortunately for Bournemouth supporters, Auxerre fans – who had the pleasure of watching him last season – absolutely love the Romanian shot-stopper.

Minutes are going to be very hard to come by this season as the man ahead of Radu in the pecking order is club captain Neto. We will probably see the youngster in the cup competitions.

11) Daniel Bentley (Wolves) Many Wolves fans questioned why their club decided to sign a Bristol City benchwarmer, which is fair enough. Outside of their Premier League bubble, there was a falling out at Ashton Gate and Bentley – not related to fellow Hale Ender David – was dropped despite being the Championship side’s best keeper.

One club’s loss is another club’s gain and all that. He is a pretty handy back-up.

10) Thomas Strakosha (Brentford) David Raya has played a grand total of 45 minutes this pre-season and has not been in the squad for their previous two fixtures, so it is safe to say he is not a part of Thomas Frank’s project. In comes Mark Flekken to take his place after keeping the most clean sheets in the Bundesliga last season, so Thomas Strakosha remains on the sidelines.

Strakosha joined with relatively high expectations but has only made two competitive appearances for the Bees. It is a bizarre one as he definitely deserves better. Frank has seen an awful lot more of him than we have, so let’s just trust him on this one.

9) Marek Rodak (Fulham) If Sheffield United’s Davies is an average Championship keeper then Rodak is a brilliant one. Quite unfortunate to be replaced by Bernd Leno, even if the German has been a superb signing, Rodak deserves to be a No. 1 somewhere. Not ahead of Leno…somewhere else.

8) Vicente Guaita (Crystal Palace) Guaita reportedly wants to leave Palace but there is nothing too concrete at this moment in time, so let’s keep him in instead of 19-year-old Joe Whitworth.

The experienced Spaniard played every minute of his side’s opening 26 Premier League fixtures last term before losing his starting spot to Sam Johnstone, who took a bit longer than expected to displace his teammate.

Roy Hodgson will go into the new season with Johnstone as his No. 1 and Guaita is not a bad back-up to have at your disposal, even if he is not best pleased with his role.

7) Caoimhin Kelleher (Liverpool) It is a bit of a shame that Kelleher seems content sitting on Liverpool’s bench. Of course, they are one of the biggest clubs in the world, but he should be playing football on a weekly basis, not playing second fiddle.

A loan move could be a great shout, even if Jurgen Klopp is losing a goalkeeping safety net. His back-up to the back-up is Adrian, if you were not aware.

6) Jason Steele (Brighton) Roberto De Zerbi’s decision to drop Robert Sanchez for Steele – who ranked 18th the last time we did this feature – was a confusing one at first, but it was vindicated through the latter’s performances towards the end of the season, especially when tasked with playing out from the back.

Steele made his Premier League debut at the age of 31 when Graham Potter started him against Aston Villa in November 2021. That was Steven Gerrard’s first game in charge of the Villans and Steele did not play in the English top flight again until April 2023, six months after Gerrard was sacked and replaced by Unai Emery.

Despite his form last term, Steele has already been replaced as De Zerbi’s favoured choice in between the sticks after Bert Verbruggen joined Brighton for around £16.3m. The Belgian is one to watch this season.

5) James Trafford (Burnley) Burnley recently snapped up England Under-21’s European Championship hero Trafford in a deal worth around £15m. Given Arijanet Muric’s terrific 22/23 campaign, after he also joined from Manchester City, the 20-year-old probably won’t come in and become Vincent Kompany’s No. 1 straight away.

Muric has looked confident in pre-season and it would be extremely harsh if Trafford was to instantly displace him, even if the latter enjoyed an amazing summer with the Young Lions.

4) Matt Turner (Arsenal) Surprising news of interest from Nottingham Forest broke in late July with both clubs apparently far apart in their valuation of United States No. 1 Turner. Truth be told, Arsenal have struck gold getting such a competent keeper who is willing to play very sparingly, but the prospect of being top dog at the City Ground should be too good to turn down.

Should Raya complete a move to Arsenal, he would comfortably sit first on this list until (potentially) displacing Aaron Ramsdale, who would replace him on top of the tree here.

3) Alphonse Areola (West Ham) Truth be told, it is not certain who David Moyes’ first-choice keeper is going to be this season. It probably is the correct time to finally make that man Areola, even if Lukasz Fabianski is still performing at a decent level.

Areola played every minute of West Ham’s triumphant Europa Conference League campaign, conceding eight goals in 13 appearances. He picked up an extra ten games from other competitions, including five in the Premier League.

On a side note: if Areola is the Hammers’ No. 1 for 23/24, Fabianksi would also be third.

2) Stefan Ortega (Manchester City) In terms of great back-up goalkeepers, there are not very many out there. Clearly, there is at least one, though…

Signed on a free transfer from Arminia Bielefeld last summer, Ortega has not put a foot wrong since joining Manchester City, playing in all nine of Pep Guardiola’s domestic cup fixtures in 2022/23. The German did not concede from open play in the FA Cup and is not a huge downgrade on Ederson, which is a humungous compliment.

1) Robert Sanchez (Chelsea) Ironically, Chelsea’s latest signing was dropped by De Zerbi for Steele, who is five spots below Sanchez on this list. Football, eh?

Signed for £25m, Sanchez will provide some very fierce competition to Kepa Arrizabalaga and if you could get odds on the first No.1 goalkeeper sacked off this season, Kepa would be odds-on favourite.